


Complicated Compromisation

by daisyqiaolianmay (skinman)



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: (CURRENTLY ON HAITUS AWAITING REWRITE), F/M, Family, Father Phil Coulson, Gen, Mother Melinda May, Philinda - Freeform, au in which phil and may are skye's parents
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-03
Updated: 2015-07-03
Packaged: 2018-04-07 10:54:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4260648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skinman/pseuds/daisyqiaolianmay
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Skye goes missing on a mission in Belarus Phil and May decide that May should go straight after her, find her, and get her back. Then May suddenly goes dark to. So, who else could Phil turn to but the earth's mightiest heroes? Whether they know he's alive or not.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Complicated Compromisation

Tony Stark was deliberating, brow furrowed, “Uh, Jarvis, I need you to amplify this low lying signal as much as possible so I can get a good read.” Tony squinted at the imaging of the signal on his screen, eyes flickering over the readings… it was familiar… he just couldn’t place it.

 _“It’s already at 100%, Sir.”_ Jarvis drawled in his robotic and accented tone.

Stark sighed, “Well then can you extrapolate it at all?”

_“Yes Sir, extrapolation commencing now.”_

Tony spun in his chair and balled up the notes he’d made, threw them across the room into the waste paper basket.

He didn’t look around when the door to the lab opened and closed with a soft click. Given that Bruce usually talked through comms from his lab upstairs, Romanoff and Barton rarely searched him out, and Thor was off cracking rocks or whatever God knows where, Tony knew it was either Pepper or Steve.

“Come to check up on me?” Tony spun round. “Don’t suppose you brought snacks?”

The super soldier’s eyes narrowed a little. He continued to stand by the door with his arms crossed looking intensely unimpressed.

“Something like that.” Steve answered the first question and relaxed, the tension seeping from his jaw, he moved toward Tony, hands in his jean pockets now. “Any luck?”

“With what?” Tony feigned innocence.

Steve came to stand near Tony, crossing his arms again, “I’m not an idiot, Stark, you’ve been down here 3 days straight, you’re working on something. We’re a team, you need to stop playing your cards so close to your chest. I thought you’d learned your lesson.”

Tony fought the urge to roll his eyes, getting up to stand in front of Steve, “No offense Rogers but I’m not so much in the mood for one of your cutesy lectures on sharing and making friends, maybe later. Go play with Romanoff, she needs more work than me.”

Jarvis interrupted their staring contest. _“Sir, extrapolation complete I have a match.”_

Tony forgot all about going toe to toe with Steve and fell into his seat to get a better look. “Alright then, now we’ve got something.”

Jarvis continued his analysis, _“It’s registered to S.H.I.E.L.D, though it was discontinued 2 years ago for security reasons it seems to be currently in use.”_

Tony and Steve shared a look, before Tony pressed his finger to the comms, _“I’m gonna need all Avengers on the 20 th floor in 5 I have some juicy new gossip for you.”_

“What are you thinking?” Steve asked him as they strode toward the elevator.

“Well… these could be Hydra transmissions or maybe we’ve been misled and S.H.I.E.L.D is still alive and kicking. Either way new intel is good news.”

“If you can hack it.”

Tony shot him a sour look, “ _When_ I hack it. Shouldn’t take very long, looks pretty weakly protected. I guess they must have been counting on it flying under the radar.”

When they reached the 20th floor Clint and Natasha had already made themselves comfortable on couches, Bruce wandered through the door a minute later.

Steve sat and let Tony take the floor. Once he’d explained the situation everyone had plenty of questions but their thoughts were interrupted as Jarvis spoke up.

_“I’ve decrypted the transmission, Sir. It’s an audio.”_

“Already?” Bruce looked to Stark, knowing that they were thinking the exact same thing. This was far too easy. Either the people behind the signal were inexperienced or they'd made the signal easily accessible for some reason.

“Play it on comms.” Tony told Jarvis.

There was a crackling and a woman’s voice began to speak, _‘MTE, respond. MTE, respond. Has EPO made contact? Respond._ _MTE, respond.’_

Tony knew this had to be a S.H.I.E.L.D transmission, the code addresses were a dead giveaway, which lead him to the two agents sat on his sofa wearing perfect poker faces. Clint was on edge though, something about the message had unnerved him. His face was blank but his shoulders were tense.

“So…” Stark began, “Super spies what’s your take on this? Have anything you want to share with the class at all?”

Clint looked to Natasha who was concentrating very hard at looking pissed off while still not giving anything away.

Steve sighed, “Look we all know now that S.H.I.E.L.D isn’t quite as dead in the water as we’ve been lead to believe so what’s the point in keeping quiet.”

Clint and Natasha shared a glance that held no meaning to the others but apparently led them to a silent agreement.

Barton was the first to speak, “S.H.I.E.L.D. never completely went down. There were still enough loyal officers and agents to keep the organisation running after the Hydra uprising. There were lone agents whose loyalties still laid with S.H.I.E.L.D scattered across the globe, it took a while for them to consolidate their resources into a unit. A highly skilled team escaped with a few air vehicles and another reobtained one of S.H.I.E.L.D’s waterborne vessels. I'd say at this moment in time S.H.I.E.L.D is only maybe 800 agents strong.”

Natasha sighed, “And Stark, your new Helicarriers are safe, they’re under the control of S.H.I.E.L.D. Fury kept them under tight wraps before he went dark, Hydra most likely has no idea they exist.”

“I just have one question,” Banner lifted a finger to get the attention of the rest of the group, “Who’s running it all if Nick Fury’s in the wind?”

“That’s classified.” Natasha responded promptly, lips pursed.

Tony scoffed, “We’re the best assets S.H.I.E.L.D has and they’re keeping us in the dark?”

“The Director thought it best you be kept at a distance until the right time.” Clint furthered Natasha’s statement.

“And what sort of time would qualify as the right time?” Steve leant forward in his seat.

“When the Avengers are needed.”

Tony Stark kept quiet for now. Hell if he was going to leave it be though. 

 

* * *

 

It was 10 pm on the Helicarrier when sirens began to blare in the Control Room. Director Coulson was present immediately.

He addressed the young man sat at the communications desk, “What have we got?”

“There’s an external sever reading one of our transmissions, Sir... The MTE one to be exact.”

“Can you set a trace?” Coulson asked as the sirens faded out. Maybe it was them. He hoped to God it was them.

“Yes, but it could take up to 10 minutes.”

Phil Coulson bit down the urge to lose control. The signal could be gone by then. Skye could do it. She could have followed up the signal in seconds, he knew it. They needed her back. He needed her home.

Seven days ago Coulson had okayed the infiltration of a large Hydra base in Belarus to obtain an artefact that had been on its way to the slingshot when it’d been taken in by Hydra. They’d needed a combat ready agent that was skilled in data analysis and decryption, someone would could work quickly with whatever they found on site. Skye was the clear choice and had volunteered immediately, despite her father’s protestations that she was needed on the Carrier to continue training the Inhumans who’d chosen to ally themselves with S.H.I.E.L.D. This was untrue, he knew they could manage without her for a couple of days, but there was something about the mission that hadn’t sat easy with him.

Skye had done her job without fail, the artefact had come back to S.H.I.E.L.D. Skye, however, had not.

Phil can still hear Agent Dante’s yelling in his head, _“We’re ready, cargo loaded, an Agent out, Sir! Agent out! Do we have clearance to fly? I repeat, Agent Coulson MTE has not made contact. Do we fly?” The sound of gunfire and shouting had shook the control room. Phil had gone into shock, he could hear Melinda’s muttered and defiant ‘no’s from where she stood beside him._

_Agent Weaver took it upon herself to act, “You know the protocol Agent Dante. You have clearance to fly.”_

Phil knew he shouldn’t feel such hatred toward Weaver. She’d made the sensible decision to remove the artefact from Hydra’s reach with plans to execute another extraction for Skye. This knowledge didn’t stop Coulson from feeling like he’d abandoned his daughter.

 _“We’ll get her back. I’m going to go get her back.”_ May had promised minutes afterward, her jaw set and eyes a cool brown.

Melinda had insisted on leading the extraction and going in after Skye immediately. Phil had wanted to go to, but he knew where is duties were, he’d be more help to Skye working from the Helicarrier, and he trusted May more than anyone to do anything she could to get Skye home. She was her daughter too after all.

That was until May went dark too. Phil Coulson was left wondering where his family was. He hadn’t slept in days despite Jemma’s attempts at slipping him sleeping pills and trying to get him to settle down for at least a nap.

“Sir,” The agent tracing the signal jogged Coulson from his revere, “It’s… um… coming from Stark Tower?”

Phil grinded his teeth. He supposed he'd known this would happen at some point. Barton and Romanoff were probably being inefficiently interrogated right now.

“Bring them in.” Phil said, turning to walk from the control room to go get ready. He was tired, pale and had been wearing the same suit for 2 days. If he was going to tell the Avengers he wasn’t dead it might help if he didn’t look half there.

“Sir?” Everyone in the control room followed his back as he walked away, shocked.

Coulson kept walking. It was time. “Bring in the Avengers.” He repeated as the doors opened before him.

 

* * *

 

Tony’s head was pounding. He didn’t think he’d drunk enough last night to warrant this assault, not nearly enough.

“Morning, Tony.” Bruce’s voice lifted him out of his dreams.

Tony huffed, “Why are you in my room Banner?”

“You might want to take a look around, Genius.” Natasha scoffed.

Tony lifted his head up. He was laid out on an uncomfortable white sofa with light streaming in at all angles. Looking out Tony caught sight of what look like an airfield. Tarmac littered with vehicles, even a few fighter jets, a small group of people clad in black were jogging the perimeter in formation. Where the hell was he? …Oh God.

Steve gave the billionaire a pointed look from where he was resting in a white armchair, “You ever heard the phrase ‘Be careful what you wish for’, Stark?”

“Were we… kidnapped?” Tony stuttered.

Clint bit back laughter at his shocked expression.

“Yes, and, if I’m honest, I would have expected the earth’s mightiest heroes to be harder to kidnap.” A familiar voice reached Tony and he froze. The Avenger’s hadn’t noticed as he and two other agents had slipped into the room while they’d been talking.

“It was a bit of a disappointment actually.” Director Phil Coulson continued as he walked toward them, a thin warm smile on his lips. Tony Stark’s shocked face was priceless.

“Director Coulson.” Steve was the first to address him, his mouth open in a shocked half smile, remembering Phil’s admiration for him. Steve felt he'd taken him for granted, over-looking his attempts to be friendly. Phil Coulson was a good man and Steve was overwhelmed by the knowledge he hadn't lost his chance to know him. The image of Phil's blood smeared across those old Captain America trading cards was something Steve thought about often.

Coulson took his extended hand and shook it firmly. “Good to see you again Captain, and you too Doctor Banner.” Phil smiled at Banner. Even to Steve, who knew him very little, he seemed distracted.

“We thought you were dead?” Tony stood up, most definitely fully awake now.

“I was, for a while. Loki gave me some nice scars. Real conversation starters.” Phil joked, diverting with finesse, Skye would be proud. He wanted to avoid discussing T.A.H.I.T.I at all cost. Phil worried what the darker tales of S.H.I.E.L.D's past would do to the trust they had gained from the Avengers. He certainly didn't want them knowing what torturous medical procedures had been exercised on him. 

Tony Stark, for once, didn’t ask any more questions. He stepped forward and grabbed Coulson’s hand, “Good to see you alive, Phil... Pepper… Pepper will be over the moon.” He was sincere, and sincerity didn’t come common with Stark. It was intriguing and a little moving to witness.

“I look forward to seeing her again.” Coulson replied truthfully, though he knew it probably wouldn’t happen for a long while yet. Once this was all over maybe he could introduce May and Skye to Pepper... maybe.

Phil turned to the agents waiting behind him, then back to the Avengers, “Clint, Nat, you know your quarters. Agents Hutch and Waters will get you all settled. We’ll be briefing you on Hydra’s position in 45 minutes.”

Director Coulson exited before anyone had a chance to catch his attention. He didn't want to talk about his death, or his recovery, or even about the future. Right now he had one objective and that was getting Skye and May back. 

 

* * *

 

Phil stroked the edges of the creased photo. A tiny baby with huge brown eyes all wrapped up in a white hospital blanket. He’d kept it with him tucked away for 25 years. To think how close he’d been to not having this tiny piece of her to hold onto all those years they’d been separated. He hadn’t meant to take the camera. It was a disposable one, they were new back then, and he’d picked one up in the store thinking it might be useful someday. He hadn’t known that 10 months later he’d be taking pictures of his newborn daughter with it. He hadn’t even entertained the idea of having a child, certainly not while he was still at the academy. It wasn’t something he’d been considering at 23 years old and Melinda and he, they were just friends… until October 1988 that was.

May had been in the year above Phil despite being a year younger. She was quiet, but it was quiet smiles and intelligence, with very little of the hardness that she’d go on to obtain, and Phil had been intrigued from the start. In his first year she’d caught him staring at her as she fought off two other trainees simultaneously and invited him onto the mat. She’d taken him down within 10 seconds. He’d known then that she was going to be an amazing agent, that one day she would be revered. That first month after Melinda told him she was pregnant Phil spent his time wallowing in guilt. Convinced he had stolen from her. She was supposed to be graduating that year. What had he done? He’d ruined everything. It wasn’t her fault, or the kid’s, it was him. He should have been more careful.

Phil remembers the day Fury approached them with ‘the plan’. The baby would be given up for adoption. Fury had convinced them it was unfair to bring a baby into the world they were going to be a part of, the much more dangerous and weirder world. It was simple. Another couple could offer their child the protection and parental presence they couldn’t, not if they still wanted to be agents.

Sometimes Phil wonders whether May every considered it; giving up being an Agent to raise Skye. He knows he did.

“We’ll find her, Phil,” Clint’s tone was sure as rock. Coulson hadn’t felt him come up behind him.

Nobody but Clint would have known what the transmission meant. He was the only one that knew Skye was ‘MTE’.

Coulson didn’t know how to respond so he simply rose from his chair and said, a barely audible shake in his voice, “Briefing in 5 minutes Agent Barton.”

Everyone else was already ready and settled when Coulson reached the briefing room, except Thor, who was yet to be tracked down.

The briefing room was actually the room Coulson used as his office (though he much preferred his one on the bus) as it overlooked the control room. It allowed him somewhere he could keep an eye out from even when he needed to organise private meetings. With all the new inhuman recruits needing guidance it was the perfect place to hold meetings about and for them, it was sizeable enough to hold a fair number of people and had a conference table in the center, with his desk placed at one end, and a large screen at the other.

Hunter, Mack, and Bobbi were present though he hadn’t asked them to be. It was somewhat comforting that he was going to be briefing the Belarus mission in front of at least a few people who really knew what May and Skye were to him.

“Here’s what we have.” Coulson began as the blinds closed and the screen behind him flickered to life. On it was an intricate blueprint. “This is a blueprint of Hydra’s northern Belarus base. It used to be a S.H.I.E.L.D training facility, so we managed to get a pretty up to date blueprint of its layout.” Phil paused, “We got a report last week concerning an Alien artefact that was destined for the Slingshot, we thought it had gone up hours before S.H.I.E.L.D fell, however it was somehow intercepted by Hydra before it could be launched.”

Bruce raised his hand, “Hold on a second what’s the Slingshot?”

“It’s what we do with anything we consider too dangerous to stay on earth.” Coulson paused, “We sling it into the Sun.”

Tony was grinning, apparently he found the concept hilarious.

“The artefact has been recovered and is under close surveillance in a secure location. But…” Coulson steeled his nerves, “We were forced to leave one of our own behind...The mission required an agent skilled in data analysis and encryption as well trained in advanced hand-to-hand combat.”

Coulson moved the screen on and tried to keep his expression unyielding as his daughter’s young face filled the it. “One of our less experienced agents, Skye, was the most apparent choice and volunteered to go in. She hasn’t contacted us since her team vacated their plane before the mission 6 days ago.”

“But you sent in extraction immediately anyway? Isn’t it protocol to wait 24 hours to see if any type of contact is established.” Steve questioned, he seemed to sense there was more he wasn’t being told.

“We look after our own, Captain.” Coulson answered, not taking it further than that. He moved the screen on so that the faces of May and two other field agents; Knowle, and Hughe, covered the screen, “I sent Agent May in with a two man team to extract, we lost contact 32 hours ago.”

Steve huffed, “I don’t mean to push Director but there’s something else going on here that your not telling us.”

Coulson pursed his lips and sighed, he trusted them, they deserved to know. He wondered what kind of father they would think he was, allowing Skye to lead such a dangerous mission.

“You should know that not only is Skye and highly skilled encryption analyst and field operative she also has power. Much like yours Captain, but she was born with it. Everything around vibrates, hums even. Skye can tap into that. It manifests itself as a form of telekinesis.”

Banner looked engaged for the first time since he'd be brought aboard the Helicarrier, "When you go down to a sub-atomic level everything in the universe is pure energy. All humming at different frequencies. Its the one thing that we know through science connects us to everything else in existence. What you're saying is this girl... Skye, can tap into the very basis of... everything and manipulate it? That's incredible."

Coulson continued to look tense, "Yes, and I need you all to keep this information to yourselves."

Doctor Banner was leant forward, listening intently, “Just one more thing, to what extent does it reach, exactly?”

Coulson looked him dead in the eye, “I have no doubts she could flip this Helicarrier over, Doctor.”

“How do you think they’re containing her?” It was the first time Natasha had spoken since she’d discovered it was Skye. Clint had nail indents in his arm from the moment Skye’s face had popped up on the screen, when she’d realised who ‘MTE’ referred to.

“Well, she must be sedated or-”Tony stopped speaking as soon as he caught the burning look in Coulson’s eyes.

“She’s alive.” Phil whispered in such an out-of-character way Tony almost recoiled. “And I need you to get her out of there. Get them all out of there.”

After Coulson left everyone started to make their move till only Tony, Steve and Bruce were left milling around.

“Did he seem off to you?” Steve thought aloud, looking at the pictures of May and the two other agents again.

“Off?” Tony started to poke around, wandering over to Coulson’s desk, “You could put it like that.”

“Must be difficult losing your people like that though, not knowing where they are, alive of dead. No wonder he’s stressed.” Bruce rationalised.

“Yeah, but Director Coulson wasn’t just stressed, he was angry… defiant…” Steve trailed off.

“Compromised? Like it was personal.” Clint’s voice emanated from the doorway, he was leant against it, watching his fellow heroes wonder aloud about the new Director.

Steve paused, “…yes.”

 Tony took a step back suddenly from where he was stood behind the Director’s desk, hitting the glass behind him, looking drained but enlightened, like he’d just taken a punch to the stomach that he knew he deserved. He was staring at a picture frame the others couldn’t see the contents of. Tony reached out and turned the frame around.

“You know anything about this Barton?”

The photo was of a family. May’s smile was small compared to her daughter’s grin, but big for her, and Phil’s was just as thin and wide as always. They’re weren’t looking at the camera but off to the left, amused by whatever entertainment was unfolding there. Melinda was leaning into Phil, her right hand up against his cheek to hold him close as Skye stood just in front of her mother. It was simple but intimate, it was not the kind of photo you had of your colleagues, not matter how close to them you were.

Tony had never thought about Agents having family’s. Director Fury certainly hadn’t seemed the type. However, the more he thought about it the more it made sense, Phil Coulson was certainly the father type.

Clint spoke up, “Skye was born in 1889 to May and Coulson when they were still cadets in the academy. She was given up for adoption but ended up in the system, ran away at 14, when Phil found her again she was a 23 year old Hacktivist broadcasting Rising Tide manifestos out the back of a van she'd been living in for 2 years.”

“Jesus Christ,” Banner muttered, moving to take a closer look.

“So... they’re his family.” Steve whispered, sitting back down with a muffled thump.

Clint came to sit down next to him, “May’s a skilled agent, beyond skilled, and the kid’s powerful and smart as hell. The fact they haven’t made it out yet, made some kind of contact...” He grimaced. "Scares me and I know it's scaring the hell out of Coulson."

“We have to get Coulson Junior out of there.” Tony concluded.


End file.
